This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. My name is Sarah, and I live here at Green Gulch Farm, Green Dragon Temple, and have for some time, and I'm happy to say good morning to you all. on this very beautiful and cold gray winter day here at Green Gulch. In this valley, all beings are rejoicing in the recent nourishing and much needed rains. Newts and crows and earthworms and fish all thriving in their noisy and quiet ways in the moist gift of the recent winter storms. almost the winter solstice.

[01:02]

It's day after tomorrow, December 21st, here for those of us in the northern hemisphere where I sit. I always think about the winter solstice as a holiday very much in alignment with our Zen practice and its emphasis on the dark. The solstice is the longest night of the year and marks the totality of the cycle of turning inward, downward, sending energy, energy being very much down in the roots under the dark and mysterious life-giving soil, which supports all the growth we can see and celebrate in the light of the spring. So this is what I'd like to talk about this morning.

[02:07]

The two truths, light and dark, duality and unity, and how caring for both is our Zen practice. Later today, there will be a Jukai ceremony right here in the Sendho. Five practitioners of the Buddha way will receive the 16 great Bodhisattva precepts from teachers in our lineage, the Suzuki Roshi lineage of Zen. This is a joyous occasion as these practitioners are joining the Buddhas and ancestors in dedicating their life energy moment after moment to the complete liberation of all beings. Every single one.

[03:08]

This is truly an act of radical love. Love beyond like and dislike. Worthy or unworthy. Way beyond the duality of self and others. And of course, we live in the world of duality. wake up every morning in the world of duality, of kindness and cruelty, of crows and worms and fish. We are human beings, sentient beings. We are human beings who have experienced suffering and have joined the Buddhist path of studying. and living how suffering arises, and studying and experiencing, living bit by bit, how to wake up, how to liberate and be liberated from that suffering.

[04:17]

The 16 Great Bodhisattva Precepts guides for our body, speech, and mind on our path, as the path to this great awakening that will liberate all of us together from suffering. These precepts exist in the realm of duality. In one of his talks, Suzuki Roshi says, in the realm of morality, there are two ways, good and bad. That is ethics, which is good. This is good and this is bad. So you have to take good instead of bad. That is morality. But that is because you live in the moral realm. The moral realm being the realm of duality. He said, we do not ignore good and bad.

[05:23]

It's in the realm of duality that we think about. how to practice the precepts, how to practice taking refuge, vowing to return to our true nature, the teachings, the Dharma, and the embodied wisdom and compassion of the Buddha as embodied in the Sangha. So we vow, I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. We also, in the realm of duality and in the ceremony, we talk about the three pure precepts. We take the pure precepts. I vow to embrace and sustain right conduct. I vow to embrace and sustain all good. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings.

[06:29]

we recite the ten grave or prohibitory precepts. A disciple of Buddha does not kill. A disciple of Buddha does not take what is not given. A disciple of Buddha does not misuse sexuality. A disciple of Buddha does not lie. A disciple of Buddha... does not intoxicate mind or body of self or others. A disciple of Buddha does not slander. A disciple of Buddha does not praise self at the expense of others. A disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything. A disciple of Buddha does not harbor ill will. A disciple of Buddha does not disparage. the three treasures. Suzuki Roshi told his students, when you ignore your actual activity, thinking about something else, that is not real practice.

[07:48]

The precepts support us to pay attention to our actual human activity. Our activity that unfolds in the world we live in, the world of duality. Our small egoic self that thinks it deserves something that it has not been given. Thinks that it's better or worse than others. That tries to hold on to objects or feelings or reputation to feel important or stave off suffering. That thinks it can control what is outside. to control what is inside. The precepts support us to pay attention to this body, speech, and mind, even when we'd rather be thinking about how to get out of these entanglements or dream of enlightenment or talk about an intellectual understanding of the teachings rather than do the work of being grounded

[08:57]

and the truth of our life together right here and right now. With patience and diligence, with the support of the example of the Buddha, the teaching, and our teachers and the Dharma friends, by taking refuge in the triple treasure of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, we may begin to practice the precepts. To entangle the karmic knots of body, speech, and mind that perpetuate the delusion that we are separate and that my suffering can end without your suffering also ending. That I can be liberated when you are not. The precepts taking responsibility for our dualistic life grounded in the truth of cause and effect.

[09:58]

is the bodhisattva path. However, if we think and act like the precepts begin and end in the dualistic realm of ethics or morality, we miss the mark. The teaching Suzuki Roshi offered, which is often quite difficult to understand, was this. There is no bad for those of us who understand our inmost nature. For in the realm of morality, there are two ways, good and bad. That is ethics, which is good. That's what I said earlier. This is good and this is bad. So you have to take the good instead of bad. That is morality. But that is because you live in the moral, If the precepts are just some kind of moral code, which you have in your mind, those precepts will not work at all.

[11:12]

So Suzuki Roshi is pointing to another way. You know, instead of simply going about our usual way, abusing our thinking mind to measure, categorize, act, and move on. We can relate to the precepts as a reminder and a guide to pay attention to and be genuinely curious about our thoughts, speech, and action. The precepts can return us to presence, return us... To relationship with all beings return us to the practice of Zazen. And resume our Buddha nature. Zazen. To settle. To open. To come into relationship with our present moment human experience.

[12:19]

To feel our body. to notice our thoughts, to feel our way back, like reaching for a pillow behind you in the dark. To our belly, our heart, in the direct, immediate, and wordless lived experience. of being in intimate relationship with everything and everyone. From this place of embodied experience, we are in relationship with unity. And we can hear Suzuki Roshi's words in a different way. When you ignore your actual activity, thinking about something else, that is not real practice.

[13:29]

Your actual activity is this activity, Buddha activity. Getting involved with ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, thinking of reality, as self and other, Suzuki Roshi tells us, is not real practice. He says, if you think, I have to observe the ten precepts one by one, that is wrong practice. So how then do we observe the precepts? How do we live in the moral human realm and take care of relative truth of sentient beings? The answer is Zazen.

[14:38]

Just sitting with no idea of attainment. Just sitting. sitting, relating to duality from the ground or underground of direct present moment experience of unobstructed reality. A reality where each thing is connected to and depends on every other thing. Where nothing is separate. And no thing or being is or could ever be excluded. This is not the realm we can see with our human eyes, grasp with our human mind. This is the soil beneath our feet.

[15:47]

is the truth of reality. One way that Suzuki Roshi talked about the way this functions was to say religion gives life to morality. He says, in religious life, this life, right here, of chanting and bowing, ceremonies and reading scriptures, Dharma talks, sitting zazen, wholeheartedly practicing. In religious life, there is no alternative. There is only just one way. When you become quite religious, you know, there is no other way than to take one way. Water does not come up. It always comes down. So here you see the religion will give life to morality.

[16:53]

For religious people, it is the pleasure to take good instead of bad. There is no alternative way. When we practice Sazen, there is no other way than to follow the precepts. the practice of stillness and silence with the truth of our relationship with all existence. A bodhisattva finds there is no other way to relate to the appearance of suffering beings, whether inside or outside, other than wisdom and compassion. This is what the Buddha experienced. This is what the Buddha taught. Sitting under the Bodhi tree, seeing a morning star, feeling the truth of all existence.

[18:01]

The Buddha woke up. It was the most natural thing in the world. Religious understanding is an understanding grounded in the body, in a way of being. It is not the usual way of understanding with the thinking mind, the small self. When we are grounded in the religious way of being and knowing, sometimes called big mind, Reality is vast and wide. Everything fits. When we are in our small mind, our human mind, something is always left out. Grounded in zazen, big mind.

[19:03]

Buddha mind is expressed. Our very being expresses the way reality is whole. the way the whole works. Being spacious and inclusive and fully present with things as it is is not a moral code. It is what underpins or supports the arising of actions of body, speech, and mind that we can recognize as ethical or moral actions. Practicing zazen, the way things actually are, is how the precepts are kept. Suzuki Roshi said, when you forget all about the precepts and without trying to observe them,

[20:12]

in the same way as you eat when you are hungry, then naturally the precepts are there. When you forget all about the precepts and can observe them quite naturally, that is how you keep the precepts. When you do something just through your skill or just by your thought, you will not be supported by people, and so it will not help others. Only when you do it with Zazen mind can you help others. You will be naturally supported. In your Zazen practice, you just sit. You have no idea of attaining anything. You just sit. What do we mean by just sit? When we just sit, We already include everything, and we are not simply a part of this cosmic being.

[21:17]

We are one with everything. That is just an expression, but the feeling is that you include everything. And actually, this is true not just for zazen. When you drink a cup of tea, that activity includes everything. Actually, it is so. If you become you yourself, and if your practice includes everything, moment after moment, the precepts are with you. That may be more important than a verbal transmission of the precepts. If I try to explain the written precepts, it takes time. But how you keep them, in short, is to live in each moment. To be sincere with yourself always without looking around.

[22:20]

I would like to express deep gratitude to Suzuki Roshi for coming here. giving us these teachings and giving us his life and for entrusting the lineage and the precepts to us. May we all observe the precepts just like this, so that all beings may be liberated, so that all beings, including all of us, may be free from suffering and know the true Peace and joy. Imagine this. The true peace and joy that comes with everyone, every single being, knowing peace and joy. Can you imagine the joy and peace of every single being, knowing that joy and peace all together?

[23:40]

May the Buddhist teaching continue to live through each of us and may it go on endlessly. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[24:19]

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